Goodbye
by Religion0
Summary: A reliable cycle... Until it was broken by that one word. Would the pain end in the same pleasure it always did? /One-shot, rated for use of the word 'Masochist'/


**Tavi… I get to write Tavi! =) Fourth one-shot on my to-do list.**

**If I owned the Legend of Zelda, Tavi and Zelink would be canon.**

Navi was abusive.

Or rather, lovingly abusive. She loved hitting Tael, but it was all in good humour. A friendly punch if you will. Except it had, for Navi, extended to kicking, tackling, biting, and otherwise getting your best friends to plead for mercy and make sounds of pain.

But she did love them, that much was obvious.

Tatl and others had learned to dodge the loving onslaught that was their friend (she often went head first into a wall, then merely laughed and did no more harm for the rest of the day), but Tael hadn't.

He might be masochistic, since he seemed to enjoy being flung to the ground, getting a roundhouse kick placed very precisely on either his thigh or his abdomen, bite marks on his ears (she was, luckily, not quite a prone biter), and general bruises all over his body from punches that were definitely not restrained.

Except he wasn't. The only pleasure he could claim getting from any of those painful encounters was when she tackled him and he, for just a short moment, felt her body pressed against his. Nothing even remotely masochistic passed through his mind at those moments.

A sharp lance of pain did tend to do so, though.

Then what, exactly, made it worth it?

After beating him up, Navi smiled in a way that reminded him of the sun rising. Its glorious rays shining upon the land, heating the ground give life to plants and beings, the dew shining like jewels under the gentle caress.

Not that anybody believed that something as simple as a wide smile of happiness could possibly be a good reason to be beaten to a pulp. It probably wasn't, either, but it was the only reason Tael could give.

After the initial sadistic streak, she was warm, soft, and cuddly, quite willing to snuggle up on a couch to enjoy whatever happened from there as long as it involved comfortable touching. And then she'd disappear for a week, come back to torture, cuddle, and disappear for another week.

A reliable cycle.

Then something strange… No, something horrible happened.

Tael opened the door as the disheartened knocking continued. He had, at first, thought he was just hearing things, but as it had continued, changed his mind and went to open the door.

It took some time for Navi to realize the door had opened. Her head had been hanging and her hand simply continuing to move back and forth in roughly the same space it had before the door was opened.

She looked confused at Tael for a few moments, then started crying.

She tackled him, but not like she always did. Not with good humour that send him flying painfully to the ground, but with a desperate urge for comfort that send him staggering backwards no more than a step or two.

His chest was getting wet from her tears and his ribs sore from the pressure applied to them. He didn't notice, though.

"Navi? Navi, what's wrong? Please, talk to me." he mumbled, frightened by her strange actions. "Are you hurt? Did something happen to you?"

"No." Navi sniffled, finally looking up at him. "But I'll be leaving soon…"

"What? Where to?" Tael knew he sounded panicked, and only furthered the picture by grabbing her shoulders, although he didn't dare push her away. But he didn't care. His - this - the most… Navi was leaving! His Navi! This beloved girl! The most… important… He couldn't just let her leave.

"Soon." Navi continued, rubbing her nose. "I'm being… Transferred to Hyrule." her voice sank to a sound level below a whisper at the last half of the sentence… But it sounded far too horribly loud to both of them. Hyrule was a world away.

"Why?" the croaked word was smothered by the weight of the silence.

"I don't know. I suppose I'm needed there…"

"You're needed here, too!"

"Tell my boss." Navi answered with a small smile. "You can't convince him that I ought to stay… Especially not for personal reasons."

The silence descended, carrying a great loads with it on its wings…

Navi pulled back a little and looked up at the saddened, narrowish face of Tael. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll come back as soon as I can, but…" she stood on the tips of her toes, pressing her lips to the joint between his jaw and neck. "Goodbye nonetheless." she whispered.

Then disappeared. Leaving not a trace in her wake but a rumpled, wet shirt and a wounded heart.

'Soon'… Was that tomorrow or today? And from where? That had been their goodbye.

More pain than she could ever have inflicted before… Would this one be followed by a smile like the sun and warm, comforting hugs?

Perhaps… And perhaps Tael was a masochist anyway.

**I seriously considered naming this one 'Masochist', but changed my mind.**

**So, Tael is a masochist, Navi is a sadist _and _a masochist. The whole darn package in a melancholy Tavi.**

**Please review that I may better. ^_^ **

**You should already know this, but I'll love you if you'd please write a Tavi of your own. If you have anything whatsoever to ask me (relevant or not), go ahead. =)**


End file.
